Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/193583421?client_source=feed&format=rss
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Tuesday, 31 January 2012
Volcanic eruptions emerge as lead cause for Little Ice Age
The Little Ice Age began in the late 13th century, scientists now posit, and lasted about 400 years. Some regions cooled significantly. A series of volcanic eruptions has become a leading culprit.
Sequences of explosive volcanic eruptions in the tropics were the likely trigger for the Little Ice Age, according to a new study.
Skip to next paragraphThe research attempts to answer two longstanding questions swirling?around the roughly 400-year span of slightly cooler-than normal?temperatures: Exactly when did it begin? And what was its initial trigger?
Previous estimates for the onset of the Little Ice Age range from as?early as the late 1200s to as late as the 1500s, the research team?notes. Globally, temperatures averaged a modest 0.6 degrees Celsius, or?about 1 degree Fahrenheit cooler than usual.
But regionally, cooling could be profound. Glaciers in the Alps grew, bulldozing mountain villages. In Europe, the growing season became shorter, with spring and summers often cold and wet, triggering famines. In China, provinces that for centuries had produced bountiful citrus harvests no longer could provide them. With an additional climate-cooling blast from Mt. Tambora in Indonesia in 1815, North America and Europe experienced the year without summer in 1816.
Researchers have proposed a range of possible causes for the Little Ice Age ? from decline in the sun's output, volcanic activity, some combination of the two, or some form of natural variability within the climate system.
The problem either with a decline in the sun's output, which happened during this period, or volcanism is that neither was powerful enough on its own to account for the cooling, says Gifford Miller, a climate scientist at the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine research at the University of Colorado in Boulder.
Recent research on solar activity has indicated the sun didn't dim as deeply as earlier research suggested. And volcanic activity typically affects climate only for a few years after an explosive eruption. It does this by hurling vast amounts of sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere, where the SO2 particles reflect sunlight back into space. Those particles eventually drift back into the lower atmosphere, where they get washed out of the sky during storms.
Instead, Dr. Miller's team proposed that the initial trigger involved several major volcano eruptions occurring within about a decade of one another, followed by another set roughly 150 years later, which intensified the cooling.
The cooling effect of those eruptions, the team posits, probably triggered the growth of Arctic summer sea-ice cover and changes in North Atlantic ocean circulation. These changes reinforced the cooling trend, turning what might have been relatively short cool periods into a centuries-long chill.
The Little Ice Age is the coldest century-scale climate swing in the Northern Hemisphere in the past 8,000 years, Miller says. ?Our work says: Here is a potential way that you can explain it.?
The Little Ice Age began suddenly between 1275 and 1300 AD, the team estimates. It bases its estimate on vegetation samples gathered from Canada's Baffin Island during field trips between 2005 and 2010. The location once was covered with ice but lost it to global warming. Because the ice was on relatively flat ground, it preserved the vegetation it buried, without grinding it to powder. Using carbon-14 dating, the team analyzed some 147 samples and found two sudden periods of intense die-offs that took place when the ice cap experienced growth spurts. One occurred between 1275 and 1300, and the other between 1430 and 1450.
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Monday, 30 January 2012
Incomes up strong 0.5 pct., consumer spending flat
In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, shoppers walk past a clearance sign at the New York & Company outlet store at the Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, shoppers walk past a clearance sign at the New York & Company outlet store at the Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
In this Nov. 9, 2011 file photo, a shopper carries purchases while shopping at Dolphin Mall, in Miami. Consumer spending was flat in December while incomes rose by the largest amount in nine months. But even with the December income surge, incomes for the whole year were up just half the amount of 2010, underscoring the challenge facing the economy. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Americans' income rose in December by the most in nine months, a hopeful sign for the economy after a year of weak wage gains. But consumers didn't spend any more than they had in November.
Americans ended up saving all their additional income.
Economists noted that income rose last month largely because of strong hiring. The economy added 200,000 jobs in December. More jobs mean more income available to spend.
The best hope for the economy is further job gains. On Friday, the government is expected to report another solid month of hiring for January.
Income rose 0.5 percent from November to December, the Commerce Department said Monday. It was the sharpest increase since a similar gain in March.
The flat spending in December followed scant gains of 0.1 percent in both October and November.
For all of 2011, income barely rose. And consumers tapped their savings to spend more.
But in December, Americans boosted their savings. If they continue to save any additional income rather than spend it, the economy could slow. And that could force employers to pull back on hiring.
Consumer spending accounts for about 70 percent of economic activity.
Many economists are holding out hope, though, that continued job gains will mean more spending across the economy.
"The pace of job growth in recent months, while still not satisfactory compared to most past cycles, at least seems sufficient to generate enough income growth to keep consumer spending moving ahead at a modest pace," said Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR, Inc.
After-tax income adjusted for inflation rose 0.3 percent in December. For the year, inflation-adjusted income rose 0.9 percent. That was just half the rise in 2010.
Inflation-adjusted consumer spending rose just 2.2 percent last year. It was slightly better than the increase in 2010.
The government said Friday that the economy grew at an annual rate of 1.7 percent last year ? roughly half the growth of 2010. It was the weakest showing since the economy contracted in 2009.
Unemployment stands at 8.5 percent ? its lowest level in nearly three years after a sixth straight month of solid hiring.
For the final three months of 2011, Americans spent more on vehicles, and companies restocked their supplies at a robust pace.
Still, overall growth last quarter ? and for all of last year ? was slowed by the sharpest cuts in annual government spending in four decades. And many people are reluctant to spend more or buy homes. Many employers remain hesitant to hire, even though job growth has strengthened.
The outlook for 2012 is slightly better. The Federal Reserve has estimated economic growth of roughly 2.5 percent for the year, despite abundant risk factors: federal spending cuts, weak pay increases, cautious consumers and the risk of a European recession.
In December, spending on both durable and nondurable goods fell. Spending on services, a category that accounts for two-thirds of consumer spending, rose 0.2 percent.
The savings rate increased to 4 percent of after-tax incomes in December, up from 3.5 percent in November.
For the year, the savings rate dipped to 4.4 percent from 5.3 percent in 2010. The savings rate had fallen to 1.5 percent in 2005, reflecting a housing boom that made people feel like spending more and saving less.
The December report showed that prices tied to consumer spending edged up 0.1 percent in December and were up 2.4 percent compared to a year ago. This is the preferred inflation measure for the Federal Reserve.
The Fed last week established an annual inflation target of 2 percent.
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Davis, Dujardin win lead honors at SAG awards (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? The Deep South drama "The Help" has won three prizes at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, including best actress for Viola Davis and supporting actress for Octavia Spencer.
"The Help" also claimed the guild's ensemble award, the show's equivalent of a best-picture prize.
Davis and Spencer won Sunday as black maids going public with uneasy truths about their white employers in 1960s Mississippi.
Jean Dujardin won the lead-actor honor for "The Artist" as a silent-film superstar whose career crumbles when the sound era arrives. Christopher Plummer won for supporting actor as an elderly dad who comes out as gay in "Beginners"
___
Online:
http://www.sagawards.com
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Sunday, 29 January 2012
Should Undercover Video Be Banned at Livestock Farms? (Time.com)
Humane Society of the United States
For decades, animal activists have gone undercover to take jobs inside large-scale livestock farms in order to document conditions for farm animals that they say are routinely inhumane. Their hidden camera footage has resulted in criminal charges against owners and workers, plant shutdowns, and after one at a California slaughterhouse in 2008, the largest meat recall in U.S. history.
But these images could soon be made illegal. Legislation pending in five states ? Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, and New York ? would criminalize the actions of activists who covertly film farms. Proponents of the various pieces legislation say that their proposed laws would lead to beneficial consequences, including the protection of such farms from potential terrorist infiltration (preserving the integrity of the food supply) and espionage; the prevention of images that mislead consumers; as well as regulating the job application process to circumvent potential employees from lying in order to be hired. See the legal assault on animal-abuse whistleblowers.
These so-called "ag-gag" bills have ignited a national debate about undercover videos and have raised concerns about free speech and journalists' and whistleblowers' ability to report on the farming industry.
TIME traveled to Iowa, the nation's leading producer of eggs and pork and the first state to propose a ban on undercover videos, with one former investigator for a rare glimpse at how these videos are made and why they are so controversial.
LIST: Top 10 Pictures of the Year of 2011
SPECIAL: TIME's 2011 Person of the Year: The Protester
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Lazio defender Dias banned for 3 Cup matches
Associated Press Sports
updated 10:45 a.m. ET Jan. 27, 2012
MILAN (AP) -Lazio defender Andre Dias has been banned for three Italian Cup matches for taking a swipe at the head of AC Milan midfielder Mark van Bommel.
The referee missed the incident during the second half of Milan's 3-1 quarterfinal win on Thursday, even though Van Bommel ended up on the ground.
The league judge also banned Inter Milan coach Claudio Ranieri for one match for insulting the referee during a 2-0 loss to Napoli on Wednesday.
Since Lazio and Inter have already been eliminated, Dias and Ranieri will serve out their bans next season.
Milan faces Juventus in one semifinal, and Napoli meets Siena in the other.
? 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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More newsAFP - Getty Images'Bad losers' and?'animals'
Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez has labeled Real Madrid's players bad losers and animals after his club won their latest ill-tempered matchup.
Hope for Solo
Ailing U.S. goalie Hope Solo practices ahead of Friday's do-or-die game vs. Costa Rica.
Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46163291/ns/sports-soccer/
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Saturday, 28 January 2012
2012 BlackBerry roadmap leaks, reveals pile of Curves and 3G PlayBook
2012 BlackBerry roadmap leaks, reveals pile of Curves and 3G PlayBook originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Friday, 27 January 2012
Trump Complains He Is "Not Allowed" To Run For President "Until The Apprentice Ends"
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Source: http://mediamatters.org/clips/201201260017
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Restored wetlands rarely equal condition of original wetlands
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Wetland restoration is a billion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States that aims to create ecosystems similar to those that disappeared over the past century. But a new analysis of restoration projects shows that restored wetlands seldom reach the quality of a natural wetland.
"Once you degrade a wetland, it doesn't recover its normal assemblage of plants or its rich stores of organic soil carbon, which both affect natural cycles of water and nutrients, for many years," said David Moreno-Mateos, a University of California, Berkeley, postdoctoral fellow. "Even after 100 years, the restored wetland is still different from what was there before, and it may never recover."
Moreno-Mateos's analysis calls into question a common mitigation strategy exploited by land developers: create a new wetland to replace a wetland that will be destroyed and the land put to other uses. At a time of accelerated climate change caused by increased carbon entering the atmosphere, carbon storage in wetlands is increasingly important, he said.
"Wetlands accumulate a lot of carbon, so when you dry up a wetland for agricultural use or to build houses, you are just pouring this carbon into the atmosphere," he said. "If we keep degrading or destroying wetlands, for example through the use of mitigation banks, it is going to take centuries to recover the carbon we are losing."
The study showed that wetlands tend to recover most slowly if they are in cold regions, if they are small ? less than 100 contiguous hectares, or 250 acres, in area ? or if they are disconnected from the ebb and flood of tides or river flows.
"These context dependencies aren't necessarily surprising, but this paper quantifies them in ways that could guide decisions about restoration, or about whether to damage wetlands in the first place," said coauthor Mary Power, UC Berkeley professor of integrative biology.
Moreno-Mateos, Power and their colleagues will publish their analysis in the Jan. 24 issue of PLoS (Public Library of Science) Biology.
Wetlands provide many societal benefits, Moreno-Mateos noted, such as biodiversity conservation, fish production, water purification, erosion control and carbon storage.
He found, however, that restored wetlands contained about 23 percent less carbon than untouched wetlands, while the variety of native plants was 26 percent lower, on average, after 50 to 100 years of restoration. While restored wetlands may look superficially similar ? and the animal and insect populations may be similar, too ? the plants take much longer to return to normal and establish the carbon resources in the soil that make for a healthy ecosystem.
Moreno-Mateos noted that numerous studies have shown that specific wetlands recover slowly, but his meta-analysis "might be a proof that this is happening in most wetlands."
"To prevent this, preserve the wetland, don't degrade the wetland," he said.
Moreno-Mateos, who obtained his Ph.D. while studying wetland restoration in Spain, conducted a meta-analysis of 124 wetland studies monitoring work at 621 wetlands around the world and comparing them with natural wetlands. Nearly 80 percent were in the United States and some were restored more than 100 years ago, reflecting of a long-standing American interest in restoration and a common belief that it's possible to essentially recreate destroyed wetlands. Half of all wetlands in North America, Europe, China and Australia were lost during the 20th century, he said. S
Though Moreno-Mateos found that, on average, restored wetlands are 25 percent less productive than natural wetlands, there was much variation. For example, wetlands in boreal and cold temperate forests tend to recover more slowly than do warm wetlands. One review of wetland restoration projects in New York state, for example, found that "after 55 years, barely 50 percent of the organic matter had accumulated on average in all these wetlands" compared to what was there before, he said.
"Current thinking holds that many ecosystems just reach an alternative state that is different, and you never will recover the original," he said.
In future studies, he will explore whether the slower carbon accumulation is due to a slow recovery of the native plant community or invasion by non-native plants.
###
University of California - Berkeley: http://www.berkeley.edu
Thanks to University of California - Berkeley for this article.
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Thursday, 26 January 2012
iPhone, iPad app rewards being a couch potato (AP)
LOS ANGELES ? Want to earn stuff by watching TV? A free app for that is set to debut Wednesday.
When you tap the screen, Viggle's software for iPhones and iPads listens to what's on, recognizes what you're watching and gives you credit at roughly two points per minute. It even works for shows you've saved on a digital video recorder.
Rack up 7,500 points, and you'll be rewarded with a $5 gift card from retailers such as Burger King, Starbucks, Apple's iTunes, Best Buy and CVS, which you can redeem directly from your device.
With some back-of-the-napkin math, you can figure that it would take three weeks of watching TV every night for three hours to earn enough for a latte at Starbucks.
But the company plans to offer bonus points for checking into certain shows such as "American Idol" and 1,500 points for signing up. You can also get extra points for watching an ad on your device. The beta version awarded 100 points for watching a 15-second ad from Verizon Wireless.
"Viggle is the first loyalty program for TV," said Chris Stephenson, president of the company behind Viggle, Function (X) Inc. "We're basically allowing people to get rewards for doing something they're doing already and that they love to do."
The idea behind Viggle is that by giving people an added reason to watch TV, the size of the audience will increase, thereby allowing makers of shows to earn more money from advertisers. Advertisers such as Burger King, Pepsi and Gatorade have also agreed to pay to have point-hungry users watch their ads on a mobile device.
In exchange, users earn points, which Viggle converts into real value by buying gift cards at a slight discount from retailers.
If the company gets the point-count economy right, it can end up making more money from advertisers and networks than it gives away in rewards.
The app will also give the company valuable insight into who is watching what, as redeeming rewards requires putting in your age, gender, email address and ZIP code.
"It really shows what social TV is going to evolve into," said Michael Gartenberg, a technology analyst at research firm Gartner. "For folks behind the scenes, this is a great way of seeing who really is watching."
The company hopes that user activity will grow by word of mouth, especially by offering a 200-point bonus to people who successfully get their friends to try out the service.
The app makes its debut in Apple Inc.'s app store on Wednesday. Versions for Android devices and computers are in the works.
The company has put in some safeguards. You must watch a show at least 10 minutes to earn bonus points. And you can't watch the same ad over and over again to earn more points; there's a one-ad-view-per-person rule.
Function (X) is owned and led by entertainment entrepreneur Robert F.X. Sillerman, who once owned a big stake in "American Idol" owner CKx Inc. That gives the company deep and broad connections in the entertainment business.
Function (X) has brought in $100 million in investment capital, and its stock trades on the Pink Sheets, a platform that allows people to buy shares but doesn't require the company release its financial results. Function (X) currently has a market value of about $1 billion.
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Obama to Republicans: Game on (AP)
WASHINGTON ? President Barack Obama delivered an election-year broadside to Republicans: Game on.
The GOP, from Congress to the campaign trail, signaled it's ready for the fight.
In his third State of the Union address, Obama issued a populist call for income equality that echoed the Occupy Wall Street movement. He challenged GOP lawmakers to work with him or move aside so he could use the power of the presidency to produce results for an electorate uncertain whether he deserves another term.
Facing a deeply divided Congress, Obama appealed for lawmakers to send him legislation on immigration, clean energy and housing, knowing full well the election-year prospects are bleak but aware that polls show that the independent voters who lifted him to the presidency crave bipartisanship.
"I intend to fight obstruction with action," Obama told a packed chamber and tens of millions of Americans watching in prime time. House Republicans greeted his words with stony silence.
The Democratic president's vision of an activist government broke sharply with Republican demands for less government intervention to allow free enterprise. The stark differences will be evident in the White House's dealings with Congress and in the presidential campaign over the next 10 months.
In the Republican response to the president's address, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, who once considered a White House bid, railed against the "extremism" of an administration that stifles economic growth.
"No feature of the Obama presidency has been sadder than its constant effort to divide us, to curry favor with some Americans by castigating others," Daniels said, speaking from Indianapolis. "As in previous moments of national danger, we Americans are all in the same boat."
Vice President Joe Biden said Wednesday the protracted policy fight with Republicans is "not about bad guys and good guys," but centers on how best to keep the middle class growing in America.
The administration has worked hard to strike deals with congressional Republicans on a wide array of issues, he said, including steps to rein in the mounting federal deficit. But Biden added that time after time in talks he held with congressional figures in both parties, he was told little could be accomplished because of the wall of opposition from 86 conservative House Republicans.
"It's like the tail is wagging the dog," the vice president said.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., called the differences between the parties "stark" and said he thought little could be accomplished on the federal debt until the two sides come to grips with the skyrocketing costs of health care and the Medicare program.
"I don't think anyone wants to pay higher taxes," Cantor said. And he said Washington needs to "get out of the mindset" that the country's problems can be solved with new programs and accept that small business "is the backbone" of the economy.
In his speech, Obama said getting a fair shot for all Americans is "the defining issue of our time." He described an economy on the rebound from the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with more than 3 million jobs created in the last 22 months and U.S. manufacturers hiring. Although unemployment is high at 8.5 percent, home sales and corporate earnings have increased, among other positive economic signs.
Republicans say the president's policies have undermined the economy.
Obama "had the opportunity and the responsibility to level with the American people, admit that the policies of the past three years have delivered an underwhelming record of economic growth and job creation, and show an interest in changing direction and uniting, not dividing the nation," said Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., head of the Republican Policy Committee. "The president failed to meet that responsibility."
There were brief moments of bipartisanship. Republicans and Democrats sat together, continuing a practice begun last year. The arrival of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt, elicited sustained applause and cheering, with chants of "Gabby, Gabby." Republican Rep. Jeff Flake escorted her into the chamber and Obama greeted her with a hug.
The president received loud applause from both sides when he said: "I'm a Democrat. But I believe what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more."
But all that belied a fierce divide.
Obama ticked off items on a hefty agenda that he wants from Congress ? a path to citizenship for children who come to the United States with their undocumented parents if they complete college, tax credits for clean energy, elimination of red tape for Americans refinancing their mortgages, a measure that bans insider trading by lawmakers and a payroll tax cut.
Political reality suggests it was largely wishful thinking on Obama's part. The payroll tax cut and must-do spending bill are the most likely legislative items to survive the election year.
But Obama's far-reaching list and the hour-plus speech offered a unique opportunity to contrast his record with congressional Republicans and his top presidential rivals, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich.
"Anyone who tells you America is in decline or that our influence has waned, doesn't know what they're talking about," Obama said ? a clear response to the White House hopefuls who have pummeled him for months.
In an attack on the nation's growing income gap, Obama called for a new minimum tax rate of at least 30 percent on anyone making more than $1 million. Many millionaires ? including Romney ? pay a rate less than that because they get most of their income from investments, which are taxed at a lower rate.
"Now you can call this class warfare all you want," Obama said. "But asking a billionaire to pay at least as much as his secretary in taxes? Most Americans would call that common sense."
Obama calls this the "Buffett rule," named for billionaire Warren Buffett, who has said it's unfair that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than he does. Emphasizing the point, Buffett's secretary, Debbie Bosanek, attended the address in first lady Michelle Obama's box.
Obama made his appeal on the same day that Romney released some of his tax returns, showing he made more than $20 million in a single year and paid around 14 percent in taxes, largely because his wealth came from investments.
In advance of Obama's speech, Romney said, "Tonight will mark another chapter in the misguided policies of the last three years ? and the failed leadership of one man."
Obama highlighted his national security successes ? the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, the diminished strength of al-Qaida and the demise of Moammar Gadhafi. In hailing the men and women of the military, the commander in chief contrasted their cooperation and dedication with the divisions and acrimony in Washington.
"At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down, they exceed all expectations," Obama said. "They're not consumed with personal ambition. They don't obsess over their differences. They focus on the mission at hand. They work together. Imagine what we could accomplish if we followed their example."
Obama leaves Washington for a three-day tour of five states crucial to his re-election bid. On Wednesday he'll visit Iowa and Arizona to promote ideas to boost American manufacturing; on Thursday in Nevada and Colorado he'll discuss energy; and in Michigan on Friday he'll talk about college affordability, education and training.
He also addresses a conference of House Democrats focused on their own re-election in Cambridge, Md., on Friday.
Polling shows Americans are divided about Obama's overall job performance but unsatisfied with his handling of the economy.
Biden was interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," NBC's "Today" show and "CBS This Morning." Cantor appeared on CBS and MSNBC.
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Former White House candidate Bachmann to seek Congress (Reuters)
MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) ? U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann, who three weeks ago ended her campaign for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, said she will seek reelection to a fourth term in Congress, a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.
Bachmann, 55, was first elected to the 6th Congressional District in Minnesota in 2006. Once a Tea Party favorite, the Iowa-born Bachmann withdrew from the presidential race a day after receiving just 5 percent of the vote in the Iowa nominating caucuses.
Bachmann Press Secretary Becky Rogness confirmed that Bachmann had said she would seek a fourth term in Congress during an interview with the Associated Press.
A former tax lawyer, Bachmann launched her bid for president in June and gained momentum with speeches focused on the economy and the goal of thwarting President Barack Obama's election to a second term in office. In dropping out, she urged Republicans to unite behind the party's eventual choice.
The Minnesota 6th Congressional District stretches from Stillwater on the eastern border with Wisconsin, around the northern suburbs of the Twin Cities to encompass St. Cloud. New district lines have not yet been established for 2012.
Bachmann received 52.5 percent of the vote in the Congressional election of 2010.
(Reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Greg McCune)
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Wednesday, 25 January 2012
FedEx opens real-time tracking to aerospace, finance, arts industries ...
FedEx first announced its SenseAware service ? which provides corporate customers with near real-time tracking for shipments ? in 2009 for the healthcare and life science industries.
Now the company is opening the service to all comers, including the aerospace, finance and arts industries.
The point of the service is that it gives companies more visibility and monitoring capability into shipments. At the heart of the product is a multi-sensor device that travels with the package, sending data to the cloud, from which a company representative can monitor it using a web-based application.
The device itself is pretty neat, and goes far beyond simple GPS coordinates (although if you ever ?received? a package that never materialized, this in and of itself is a godsend): it takes readings for temperature, relative humidity and barometric pressure, can tell if and when the shipment was opened and, for film buffs out there, if the contents have been exposed to light.
Since the customers in question tend to ship highly sensitive or large packages (think pallets, not pouches), the device can also handle major shipments. And it doesn?t require a major infrastructure overhaul: drop in the device, and let the sensors do the rest.
It?s the future of shipping, really. Because with all of the connected technology at work around us, why should we resort to being left in the dark for shipments ? medicine, prototypes, encrypted hard drives ? that are critical?
Related on SmartPlanet:
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Romney defends investments, readies tax returns
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a discussion on housing and foreclosure, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney holds a discussion on housing and foreclosure, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters after a discussion on housing and foreclosure, Monday, Jan. 23, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON (AP) ? Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has criticized rival Newt Gingrich for earning more than $1.6 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac even though he has as much as $500,000 invested in the U.S.-backed lender and its sister entity, Fannie Mae.
A day before Romney planned to release his income tax returns, his old investments in two controversial government-backed housing lenders stirred up new questions at the same time his campaign targeted Gingrich for his work for Freddie Mac.
The dimensions and the sources of Romney's wealth, which he has estimated to be as much as $250 million, have become pivotal issues in the roiling GOP primary campaign. For months, Romney dismissed calls to release his personal income tax records. But after mounting criticism from his rivals and others, coupled with his stinging weekend loss to Gingrich in the South Carolina primary, Romney agreed to release his 2010 return and 2011 estimate.
Romney's most recent financial disclosure report listed several investments in U.S.-backed lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Romney, Gingrich and other GOP critics repeatedly have all singled out the two quasi-government entities as prime villains in the housing crisis that played a central role in the nation's long and deep recession.
While continuing to hammer Gingrich for his consulting work for Freddie Mac, the Romney campaign sought to deflect questions about the former Massachusetts governor's investments. They include a mutual fund worth up to $500,000 that includes assets from both lenders among other government income, and separate investments in each of the lenders in Romney's individual retirement account, each worth between $100,000 and $250,000.
Romney campaign officials said Monday that a trustee handles the investments and that Romney had no role in choosing or managing them.
The tax returns Romney planned to release Tuesday could provide new details about his investments and his annual take as founder of the Bain Capital private equity firm. Gingrich released his own 2010 federal tax return last weekend, during a South Carolina GOP debate, and his campaign said he would disclose his full contracts with Freddie Mac on Monday night just before the debate in Tampa, Fla.
Romney's tax returns are likely to sketch out critical information about the tax strategies he employs. Tax experts said these likely include his use of a low 15 percent capital gains rate to reduce the taxes he pays on dozens of large investments that flow into his blind trust, charitable donation strategies that benefit philanthropies but also further reduce his tax burden and investments routed through offshore affiliates that could help him defer some tax payments.
Romney already has acknowledged that his current tax rate is about 15 percent, a level far lower than standard rates for high-income earners and similar to the capital gains rate. But some tax law and tax policy experts suggest that Romney likely has paid similarly low rates throughout his Bain years, continuing through the 13 years since he left the firm.
Joseph Bankman, a Stanford University business and law professor who has testified before Congress on the taxes paid by private equity firms like Bain, said Romney's background as a financier, coupled with his growing wealth and ability to use sophisticated tax tactics, makes it highly likely that he has paid taxes at the capital gains rate for most of his career.
"There is no reason to believe that Romney ever paid more that the going rate for capital gains," Bankman said.
The current lowest rate for long-term capital gains is 15 percent, but a higher rate of 20 percent had been in effect since 1981 until President George W. Bush signed into law a massive tax cut program in 2001.
Romney's 2010 return and 2011 estimate, Bankman said, could detail whether he continues to make any "carried interest," a lucrative investment arrangement typical among private equity managers that earns at least 20 percent of an investment fund's profits. The bulk of Romney's profits from his "carry," as the maneuver is often called in the private equity world, came during his tenure as Bain's founder and managing director in the 1980s and 1990s, but reportedly continued in the years after he left the firm.
At least six of Romney's investments, worth between $5 million and $25 million, were made in funds that have offshore affiliates based in the Cayman Islands, a well-known haven for companies seeking to attract foreign and non-profit investors. One of those funds, which is invested in Romney's retirement IRA, could be used to defer some of his tax payments, Columbia University law professor Michael Gaetz said. It is uncertain if any offshore accounts would be identified in Romney's new tax disclosures.
Romney's vast investments contain other funds than the ones he profited from as a Bain Capital executive. But it was unclear Monday whether he had any direct role in handling the investments in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that appear on his 2012 presidential disclosure.
One investment, listed as a "Federated Government Obligation Fund" and worth between $250,000 and $500,000, was a mutual fund that included both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac assets among a larger pool that included other government securities.
The holding was not listed in Romney's blind trust, which led some Democratic Party activists to suggest that the investment was under his direct control.
"He is relentlessly attacking Newt Gingrich over his ties to Freddie Mac despite the fact that he personally invested up to a half a million dollars in both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac," said Ty Matsdorf, a senior adviser with American Bridge 21st Century, a PAC associated with Democratic Party and liberal causes.
Former GOP Rep. J.C. Watts, a Gingrich supporter, said Monday that Romney was on a slippery slope calling his opponent a lobbyist and raising doubts about Gingrich's work for Freddie Mac. But he did not directly address Romney's investments with the lender or with Fannie Mae.
"Some might see it as splitting hairs. But Newt Gingrich was not walking the halls of House and Senate," Watts said on a conference call arranged by the campaign. "He was never doing the hand-to-hand combat doing the lobbying, consulting, whatever you want to call it."
A Romney campaign official who insisted on anonymity to discuss that investment in greater detail said that Romney's trustee had bought the government investment fund in 2007, before the housing crisis broke.
The Romney official said that the government fund was purchased through a charity trust that does not appear in Romney's presidential disclosure but will show up on his income tax return for 2010. That trust, called a Charitable Remainder Unitrust, is a standard tax strategy among the wealthy that provides investors with a fixed payout each year. What remains in the account at a later date, or when the investor dies, is turned over to charity, the official said.
Romney does not directly control the investment account, Romney campaign senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom said earlier on Monday. "His investments are controlled by a trustee," Fehrnstrom said.
Separately, Romney's IRA retirement account lists both a Fannie Mae and a Freddie Mac security, each worth between $100,000 and $250,000. But because those are in Romney's IRA, they also appear to be under control of the trustee.
Tax experts said Romney's income tax returns may contain other charity structures and tax strategies designed to both boost his income and charity donations, while minimizing his involvement because of his presidential ambitions.
Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center, a branch of the nonpartisan Urban Institute in Washington, said much can be gleaned by looking at Romney's sources of income and his itemized deductions. The latter would include Romney's 10 percent annual tithing to the Mormon Church, which would lower his tax liability and counteract higher taxes he would otherwise pay on non-investment income, like speaking fees.
An annual study of charity giving by the ultra-rich has shown that tax strategies are only one of several motivations, said Una Osili, a professor of economics and philanthropic studies at the University of Indiana. The most recent 2010 study of "high net-worth philanthropy" found that religious ties and volunteer and donor relationships are also important, said Osili, director of research for the studies.
Osili noted that more than 90 percent high net-worth donors tend to make donations in either cash or checks. But Romney's own family charitable foundation, the Tyler Charitable Fund, has showed signs that Romney has also donated stock investments to charity ? and his 2010 returns could provide more evidence of that trend.
___
Associated Press writers Kasie Hunt and Brian Bakst in Tampa contributed to this report.
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Tuesday, 24 January 2012
Video: Romney: Gingrich an ?influence peddler?
>> all right. let us begin this morning with breaking political news. the overnight release of mitt romney 's tax returns . nbc's peter alexander is in tampa. good morning to you.
>> reporter: matt, good morning. as you noted this morning governor romney has been facing increasing pressure to release his tax returns . he put out his 2010 tax returns and an estimate of the 2011 returns. we'll put that information now up on your screen. they reveal that he made a combined income in two years of nearly $43 million. he paid more to charity than he did to the irs paying out $6.2 million in taxes over two years. his charitable giving was $7 million. finally that adds up to a tax rate of 14%. the debate last night was a role reversal with mitt romney on the offensive against newt gingrich referring to him often as an influence peddler.
>> i think this is going to come down to a question of leadership.
>> reporter: with new aggressiveness mitt romney wasted little time attacking newt gingrich . the speaker was given an opportunity to be the leader of our party in 1994 . at the end of four years he had to resign in disgrace.
>> i'm not going to spend time chasing down governor romney .
>> i'm not going to get attacked day in day out without returning fire.
>> reporter: early monday romney rolled out his first negative ad of the campaign taking aim of gingrich 's relationship with freddie mac .
>> gingrich was paid over $1.6 million by the group that created the crisis.
>> i was a historian.
>> reporter: gingrich released his before the debate.
>> mr. speaker, you were on this stage at a prior debate. you said you were paid $300,000 by freddie mac as an historian. they don't pay people $25,000 a month for six years as historians. we have congressmen who say you lobbied them in favor --
>> i didn't lobby them.
>> they say you lobbied them with regard to medicare part d .
>> whoa, whoa. you just jumped a long way over here, friend. i understand your technique which you used on mccain, huckabee. you have used it consistently. it's unfortunate and it won't work well because the american people see through it.
>> rick santorum stayed above the fray saying he draws the clearest contrast with president obama .
>> if you have learned anything about this election that any type of prediction is going to be wrong. the idea that this was a two-person race has been an idea that has been in fashion now for eight months and it's been wrong about eight times.
>> reporter: also trailing the front-runners here, ron paul said he has no plans to run as a third party candidate but gave a back-handed compliment to his surging rival.
>> would you support a newt gingrich for the gop?
>> he hints about attacking the fed, talks about gold. if i could change him on foreign policy we might be able to talk business.
>> reporter: a couple miglight moments on stage. tonight we'll hear the state of the union . today mitt romney is expected to speak about jobs and the economy right here in what was a factory where they produced drywall. this place has been shuttered for years.
Source: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46113347/
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Monday, 23 January 2012
Rick Santorum On Opposition To Abortion In Cases Of Rape: 'Make The Best Out Of A Bad Situation'
GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum explained his opposition to abortion even in cases of rape during an interview Friday, saying that women who face such circumstances should "make the best out of a bad situation."
Asked by CNN's Piers Morgan what he would do if his own daughter approached him, begging for an abortion after having been raped, Santorum explained that he would counsel her to "accept this horribly created" baby, because it was still a gift from God, even if given in a "broken" way.
"Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn't have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice, I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or she doesn't, it will always be her child, and she will always know that," Santorum said.
"And so to embrace her and to love her and to support her and get her through this very difficult time, I've always, you know, I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created -- in the sense of rape -- but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life we have horrible things happen. I can't think of anything more horrible, but nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation and I would make the argument that that is making the best."
(Video above via CNN)
Santorum has crusaded against abortion throughout his tenure as a legislator and presidential hopeful. A recent analysis of his time as a U.S. senator showed an almost obsessive tendency to talk about abortion-related subjects on the Senate floor. His strict views on the issue, as well as gay rights, have repeatedly drawn aggressive pushback from his detractors on the campaign trail.
In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Santorum called Obama's support of women's reproductive rights "radical and extreme," arguing that this was illustrated through the president's recent statement on the 39th anniversary of Roe v. Wade.
Other hardline anti-abortion advocates have explained their views much like Santorum has. In 2010, Tea Party-backed Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle was asked to explain her belief that abortions were unacceptable even in the case of a girl being raped by her father.
"I think that two wrongs don't make a right," she answered. "And I have been in the situation of counseling young girls, not 13 but 15, who have had very at-risk, difficult pregnancies. And my counsel was to look for some alternatives, which they did. And they found that they had made what was really a lemon situation into lemonade."
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Sunday, 22 January 2012
Is it 'Burma' or 'Myanmar'? US officials start shifting.
Sen. John McCain arrives Sunday with other US officials in Myanmar. Or is it Burma?
Burma or Myanmar? As the country's military-backed government races headlong into reforms aimed at ending its long international isolation, US officials are changing their tone.?For starters, they are beginning to use the government's preferred name for the country, "Myanmar," after two decades of sticking with "Burma."?
Skip to next paragraph?We have visited the Philippines, Vietnam, we are here, we are going to Myanmar tomorrow morning,? said Sen. John McCain, opening a press conference given by four US senators for journalists?in Bangkok on Saturday afternoon.
It may seem like a small point, but in the subtle world of diplomacy this is heady stuff. It would seem to signal US recognition of the changes afoot in Myanmar and a willingness to work with a regime it has shunned for decades.
Until now, the US took its verbal cues?from opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi when it came to the country's name. Attempting a symbolic stand against the arbitrariness of military rule, Ms. Suu Kyi and western governments have mostly stuck with ?Burma? since the military junta changed the country's name to Myanmar in 1989.
But throughout Saturday's 45 minute Q&A with the senators, "Myanmar" was the term of choice, though the senior lawmakers at times slipped back into using "Burma."
When I asked whether the etymological shift presaged a changing US policy, Senator McCain cracked a joke about the ?West Philippine Sea? (the name used by Manila to refer to the disputed South China Sea, also known as the East Sea in Vietnam), before telling me that ?you raise a good point.?
He moved swiftly along to the next question.?
After US State Deptartment official Joseph Yun got an ear-bending last year from Myanmar's Foreign Minister Wunna Waung Lwin over his use of "Burma" during a visit to the country, perhaps the senators were just getting the script right before meeting President Thein Sein.?
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Experts see tough road for Kodak to reinvent self (AP)
CHICAGO ? Even in bankruptcy, Kodak boasts some enviable strengths: a golden brand, technology firepower that includes a rich collection of photo patents, and more than $4 billion in annual sales of digital cameras, printers, and inks.
But all that may not be enough to revive its declining fortunes in a Chapter 11 overhaul. Kodak is at a crossroads: It could go the way of fallen Montgomery Ward and Circuit City, two corporate names that never recovered from long declines. Or Kodak could prosper after bankruptcy like General Motors.
Of the many restructuring experts interviewed by The Associated Press on Thursday, none are optimistic that Kodak can make a strong comeback.
Selling select business lines and patents and making the right bets on a limited number of new technology products could allow the Eastman Kodak Co. to survive, several experts said. But none see a path back to anything close to the glory days of the former photography titan.
"You can pick your metaphor: `Stick a fork in them,' `They're over the cliff' -- they're done," said Bill Brandt, chief executive of turnaround consultant Development Specialists Inc. in Chicago. "The Kodak as we know it is done, unequivocally."
The company's only hope, Brandt said, is to reinvent itself as an intellectual property company. But first it will have to put its patent portfolio up for sale and determine whether it wants to sell them based on what's offered, he said, or retain them and try to remake the company over a period of years.
Kodak said only that it has appointed a chief restructuring officer to head the effort: Dominic DiNapoli, vice president of FTI Consulting. It expects to complete its U.S.-based restructuring next year.
Whatever the company does now is likely to be too little, too late, said Gary Adelson, managing director of turnaround firm NHB Advisors in Los Angeles.
"I can't imagine a big future for Kodak," said Adelson, who thinks the company should just sell its assets. "I think it's going to be another one of those companies that didn't make the transition to the future."
Some experts think the company can get by once it cuts debt by reducing pension and employee benefit costs in bankruptcy, then disposes of its least valuable products.
Only a much leaner, more focused Kodak can survive, said Haresh Sapra, an accounting professor and bankruptcy specialist at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. "They probably should go back to basics and focus on one or two of those business lines that are self-sustaining," he said.
The primary hope lies in digital businesses that generated some $4.5 billion in revenue last year, an amount Kodak said accounted for about 75 percent of total sales. That includes consumer devices such as self-service photo kiosks, printers and high-volume document scanners.
"If they can take their existing products and improve them and make them much cheaper, I see no reason why the company can't emerge with a healthier balance sheet," said Edward Neiger, a partner at New York bankruptcy law firm Neiger LLP. "It's going to be a shell of what the old company was, but I don't think they need to liquidate."
In a statement accompanying the Chapter 11 filing on Thursday, the company touted its "pioneering investments in digital and materials deposition technologies" in recent years.
The best-case scenario for Kodak in the long run may be to end up like Polaroid, suggested Eli Lehrer, who heads the nonprofit Heartland Institute's Center on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate in Washington. The company long known for its instant-film cameras stopped making them and filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The Polaroid name, however, lives on under private ownership, albeit as a much smaller firm.
Kodak has a better brand name, Lehrer said, although "That doesn't necessarily translate to people keeping their jobs, or stockholders keeping anything."
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Saturday, 21 January 2012
Teri Whitcraft: The Million Moms Challenge: Helping Moms Around the World, One Story at a Time
The statistics are staggering: Every 90 seconds, someone in the world dies during pregnancy or childbirth. That's 1000 women and girls every day. Yet experts say more than 80 percent of those deaths are preventable with access to basic medical care -- and that doesn't include the more than 1 million babies a year who are stillborn because their mothers did not receive needed medical care.
How can you NOT want to help?
The "Sisterhood of Motherhood"
Last September, ABC News and the United Nations Foundation joined forces to launch the Million Moms Challenge, a call to action to engage millions of Americans with millions of moms in developing countries. Our goal: to create a vibrant community around the shared dream of a healthy pregnancy, a safe birth, and a baby who will survive and thrive -- basic human rights that all too often are simply out of reach for women in the developing world.
The idea was to transcend distance, language and cultural differences by tapping into the common experience of moms -- the so-called "Sisterhood of Motherhood." As Tina Sharkey, CEO of Baby Center, told ABC News: "Whether your child is born in a hut or in a private hospital room, that moment of profound transformation is the same. No matter what language you speak, what personal belief system guides you -- at our core, all moms want the exact same thing -- a happy and healthy family."
Watch Arianna, Sarah Brown and Donna Karan share their birth stories:
-First we partnered with nearly two dozen of the most respected non-governmental organizations around the world- including Save the Children, Partners in Health, World Vision, White Ribbon Alliance, ONE.org and mothers2mothers, to name a few.
We created a dedicated website (www.MillionMomsChallenge.com) featuring original video stories, news from our partners, and live, interactive posts from hundreds of mom bloggers (provided by BlogFrog).
And we hit the road, traveling to 16 countries and producing dozens of stories, ranging from investigative reports to feature stories to an hour-long primetime special with Diane Sawyer -- "Giving Life: A Risky Proposition."
"The Most Dangerous Thing A Woman Can Do"
For the primetime special on December 16th, 2011, we focused on countries where giving birth is literally the most dangerous thing a woman can do.
In Afghanistan, where more than half of marriages involve child brides, we met 15-year-old Miriam, married at 13 and about to give birth to her first child. Our producers travelled into Taliban-controlled areas to tell the stories of young mothers; one producer was threatened and stripped of his possessions at gunpoint during a trip near the Pakistan border.
In Sierra Leone, where one in six women dies in pregnancy or childbirth -- most often from postpartum bleeding -- we investigated why so few hospitals have the anti-hemorrhaging drug misoprostol, which can save lives for less than the cost of a postage stamp.
We also looked at success stories. Deborah Roberts reported on the so-called "Bangladesh miracle": how one of the poorest countries in the world achieved a 40 percent reduction in maternal deaths in the past decade, primarily by training skilled birth attendants and sending text and voice messages to pregnant women. And in Mexico, Dr. Richard Besser reported on the dramatic impact family planning has had on improving the lives of women and their children.
Baby Bumps and Twitterthons
But it wasn't just television. To engage a new audience, we worked with Baby Center to host the world's first virtual Baby Shower for Global Good -- an 8-hour "twitterthon" where more than a 1600 people won prizes and tweeted with top experts around the world. Total twitter impressions: over 94 million.
We launched the Imagine Me & You Facebook contest, where more than 450 women submitted photos of their "baby bumps" with a message for their little ones in an effort to win a rare photo session with renowned photographer Anne Geddes in her Sydney, Australia, studio . The contest sparked more than 40,000 "likes" and signups for the Challenge.
And we worked with the USC Institute for Global Health to develop an online video game "1000 Days," highlighting the crucial 1000-day window from pregnancy through age two when proper nutrition can determine a child's future.
An Outpouring of Support
In just 4 months, the Million Moms Challenge created an online community of more than 110,000 and raised more than $200, 000 (including generous contributions from Johnson & Johnson and Disney Baby). But it was our viewers who did the heavy lifting, donating more than $1.5 million throughout the entire year to organizations featured in our division-wide "Be the Change: Save a Life" series. It was clear that people wanted to make a difference -- and they did:
- After Dr. Richard Besser met a woman in Bangladesh whose child died from diarrhea linked to dirty water, we asked viewers to help build a water tap for the island community. They donated enough to build 10 faucets and 20 toilets.
- After Christiane Amanpour reported on malnutrition in Guatemala, where 80% of children are stunted, we asked viewers to donate40,000 to help children in one village develop normally. They gave enough to help the children of five villages.
- Elizabeth Vargas met a group of students from Stanford University developing a low-cost incubator for premature babies in India. The resulting100,000 in donations helped propel the incubator into testing, and it is now being used to help babies in villages in rural India.
Then there were smaller -- but equally important -- milestones that had less to do with raising money than raising awareness here at home:
- When JuJu Chang reported how Hope Phones was collecting old cell phones in the U.S. and recycling them so new phones can be bought for health workers in the developing world, the nonprofit went from collecting 200 handsets per month to 500 handsets per business day.
- After seeing David Muir's report on a measles outbreak in Somalia and a vaccine that costs just 24 cents, 15-year-old Dimitri Godur rallied his eighth-grade classmates in Florida to raise money for the Shot@Life campaign -- enough for more than 4,000 doses of the "24 cent solution."
- When ABC News and Duke Global Health Institute asked college students to send in their big idea for improving maternal health, eight graduate students from John Hopkins won a $10,000 prize donated by the Lemelson Foundation. Their idea: a "Protein Pen" that can screen for preeclampsia as well as other potentially deadly conditions for less than a penny a test. They recently returned from field-testing the pen in Nepal.
The Next Chapter
For the entire team here at ABC News -- including all the correspondents and producers who reported from around the world -- the year-long global health series has been an extraordinary project. And it's just the beginning.
As the network becomes more focused on political coverage during the election year, the U.N. Foundation will carry the momentum of the Million Moms community into its next phase , continuing to shine a light on the individuals and organizations helping to save the lives of mothers and children around the globe. And now, with the Global Motherhood platform at the Huffington Post, the idea of a vibrant global community -- that "Sisterhood of Motherhood" -- is becoming even more of a reality.
Here's to million moms reaching out to moms and children to create healthier communities throughout the world!
The Million Moms Challenge was part of ABC News' year-long, division-wide series "Be the Change: Save a Life", sponsored in part by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Teri Whitcraft is a Senior Producer of ABC News Special Units, and Coordinating Producer of ABC News' year-long, division-wide global health series.
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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/teri-whitcraft/million-moms-challenge_b_1214617.html
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Diabetics to Paula Deen: You Hypocrite!!
Celebrity chef Paula Deen is, quite predictably, being called a hypocrite both for hiding her diabetes while promoting unhealthy foods and for turning around and partnering with a pharmaceutical drug company that provides relief for diabetics.
Deen, a popular Food Network host, confirmed Tuesday that she was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease, three years ago.
In the same breath, she announced a partnership with drug maker Novo Nordisk.
Fellow celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain is perhaps her best known and most vocal critic, but diabetics across the United States are up in arms at Deen's disclosure.
“It is hypocritical [for Paula] to have continued to very publicly promote entirely unhealthy food choices so vital to the management of diabetes,” one told Fox411.
“We of course don't know the terms of her contract with the company, but it seems either stupid or hypocritical of them to be endorsing her lifestyle," says another.
Deen gave no comment when it was requested, but a source close to the network tells Fox411 that they found out about Deen's condition only a week ago.
Some of Deen’s fans expressed outrage that the 65-year-old chef had found what they believe is a way to capitalize on a diagnosis she kept secret for so long.
“I understand she has an empire and a huge following to protect, but working with Novo Nordisk is just adding another revenue stream, and that is tweaking people like me who are in the diabetes education community,” said Carl Moore.
Moore, a type 2 diabetic and an educator on diabetic issues, said the news didn’t exactly come as a surprise to him and others with the disease.
“Many of us have watched the Buttuh Queen for years cooking with no thought for the consequences and waiting to hear she was diabetic,” he said.
Betsy Lampe, who has struggled with type 2 diabetes for more than 20 years, said Deen has already missed her first opportunity to educate victims.
“She didn’t tell us anything on the 'Today Show'; she got really defensive,” Lampe said. “She didn’t even tell us what her blood sugars were."
"You know, diabetics want to entertain and cook too. If I were her I would have announced a whole new show for entertaining as a diabetic. It was just offensive to me.
“She kept talking about moderation, but moderation in what? She didn’t explain.”
“She is overweight and that makes her, in my opinion, not credible or valid to promote diabetes drugs,” adds Richard Deems, a type 2 diabetic like Deen.
The American Diabetes Association, however, was supportive of the Southern chef.
“People may benefit from seeing how others successfully manage type 2 diabetes,” the group said in a statement. “Paula Deen, through her work with Diabetes in a New Light, is likely to inspire many people living with type 2 diabetes."
Hopefully, the group says, people will "take a more positive approach to their diabetes care. We commend her for speaking out on behalf of people with type 2 diabetes and welcome her to the Association’s Stop Diabetes movement.”
Source: http://www.thehollywoodgossip.com/2012/01/diabetics-to-paula-deen-you-hypocrite/
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